


Reversed Beginnings

by Soluo



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Asgore is much too sweet for his own good, Deaths of people who aren't real characters, F/M, Fluff, Gaster apparently doesn't know what a crush is, M/M, War, kingdings, one sided Asgore/Gaster (at first), tags will change as story progresses and i write more..., theyre to flesh out what we dont know about cannon characters so uh yea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-09-29 08:42:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17200277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soluo/pseuds/Soluo
Summary: W.D. Gaster is fearing for his future, as was everyone. A truly world (wide) war was approaching them as the humans rumored calling war upon the monsters to expel them from their world. He meets Asgore one day when in a funk who helps convince him everything's going to be alright in the end, maybe kind of falls in love with the goat monster, and then eventually the war happens. While the monsters do win, killing off any humans who wanted to fight them, and outcasting the rest; no one wins in a war, truly.At first, for a while, it's one sided Gaster/Asgore on Gaster's part. Asgore doesn't get mad or weird about it, and is way too sweet for his own good... As this takes place before the events of Undertale, and diversly would effect those of Undertale, there's a very slim amount of characters who would be old enough, or better yet born at this time, to actually come into play in the beginning. There's a bunch of made up characters placed throughout who are there to form the cannon characters into who they'll become in the future, as well as the family of younger characters (like Monster Kid, Alphys, and Undyne, for example). Eventually once they're in the Underground, Gaster/Asgore will no longer be one sided!





	1. Wow, a Temmie

**Author's Note:**

> Pay absolutely no attention to chapter titles. I can barely name the story, let alone individual chapters.., so I put weird names instead of being blank, lmao.  
> Anyways, the tags will change and be edited as this goes on... this is my first published writing on the entire internet, and it was gonna be some weird ass yandere Underswap thing, but I decided to post this first since I found it more interesting personally, and I'm almost done with said Underswap thing anyhow, sooo...
> 
> I'll always leave any potential triggers in the notes above the chapter! If you don't want them to spoil the chapter, don't read them! This one has none.
> 
> As said in the summary, there's non cannonical characters to represent how cannon characters become how they will be later on, as well as to be the parents and family of cannon characters who are younger/not born at this time. I try and make it not completely clueless who these monsters are supposed to be related to, by describing them similarly to how their children will later look. Anyways, I'm actually complete shit with writing cute things cause I legit like start getting scared of it cause I find something as little as "X looked away from Y's bright smile" cute as hell, and I wanna cry when I'm actually writing things like this, so I'm trying to murder that stupid boundary my mind's made to make this as cute as possible since Kingdings has like such little content, and it's my favorite shit ever??
> 
> I g o t t a p r o v i d e f o r m y k i n g d i n g s s u p p o r t i n g f a m i l y o v e r o n d i s c o r d y k n o w

It was a day like any other. The sun was shining brightly down upon the city, making strange shadow patterns between where the sun was blocked by looming buildings, and shone blindingly between them where the road lay. Gaster lived in an apartment, his neighbors also luckily all being monsters so he didn't have to fear for himself during the night hours when within the building.

The humans had been getting aggressive towards the monsters they'd shared the world with for longer than anyone can remember. If you asked any monster, especially Gaster, they'd say the humans were full of themselves. They were monsters too, and separating themselves as something else was disgraceful for everyone else who had to deal with their hot headed-ness about it.

The humans were just another kind of monster, who naturally had stronger souls and could hold various traits that made them hard to get rid of, as shown in their history. But they weren't the only ones; they weren't special nor one in a million. Skeletons, though very rare monsters to come across due to this, were much stronger than humans as far as souls and magic goes. Physically, they can't really put up a fight, for obvious reasons, but magically they could compare and completely overtake even the strongest of all the monsters at the moment; Asgore.

Yet that plain, obvious, simple fact didn't deter the humans in thinking how they did. The humans had always said they were not monsters, and that they were above monsters; that monsters should get out of their way. Humans made up most of the monster population, as, according to other monsters, they bred like rabbits and suffocated anything within their reach to spread their homes further and further.

Normal monsters, while they would create places to live, wouldn't build giant asphalt jungles which were the cities primarily built by the humans in their determination to prove themselves better than the rest of the monsters. That, of course, just made them appear as more of a working force since they would always challenge the rest saying that they could do it and the monsters couldn't, because they were more than capable of doing it without their help.

In fact, it was definitely no secret that the human's, collectively, had very, vary dark thoughts about themselves and their worlds. They had made countless films where the entire thing is just tragedy to their own kind; tsunamis destroying entire cities, globally roaring fires, the moon colliding into the Earth and starting another ice age, the Earth being blown up by creatures from space, etc. The list could go on, and it was clear humans seemed to fantasize, and even enjoy the concept of their own destruction.

So of course their main, macho leader that they all looked up to for this kind of thing had rumored threats of starting war against the rest of monsterkind to rid them of their world and take it all for themselves. And so, the rest of the monsters looked to Asgore about this, as far as anyone knew he was both the strongest monster, and also good at negotiating and talking to people, as was his friend Toriel who he spent a lot of time around.

...Anyhow, as said earlier, today was as normal as ever. Gaster was looking out his window at the sun rising between the buildings; he had always appreciated this view. It was quite magical, to say the least. There was a knock on his door, so he abandoned his window to open it, revealing his sister Harlow on the other side, "Oh! Hello!" Gaster says, surprised. He hadn't seen her in quite a while, and she usually stayed away from cities like the one Gaster lived in.

"Hey! Long time no see! I felt kinda bad about never visiting and only talking over the phone and stuff, so I decided to surprise you and come visit you for a few days! It's our birthday in a couple days, obviously, so I thought now was the perfect time!" She says smiling her usual happy grin. The two were twins, and while they didn't have similar interests at all, they still got along pretty well most of the time.

"It is, isn't it? My, I've lost myself and forgotten time itself.., what's today, again?" Gaster moves aside to let the other skeleton inside, shutting the door behind her.

"I believe it's July seventh!" She responds, looking around the apartment, spotting the golden light flooding through the windows from the rising sun, "Oh! Wow! Woulda look at this! I don't like the idea of cities, but I'll have to admit that that's a real pretty view you've got here, G!"

"I thought it was annoying at first, honestly.., but it's grown on me." Gaster responds, "Who thought something made by the humans could looks like this, yet have such terrible impacts as a whole? It's fascinating honestly. Sometimes I wonder.., no, no, nevermind. I'm getting ahead of myself again, aren't I?"

Harlow chuckles, "You're still a nerd as always, I see? Hey, what's that?" She instantly turns her attention to a little, white, furry lump sleeping in the corner of the room they were in, its back turned to them in the little plush bed it lay on.

"Oh! She's nothing special, just some Temmie who I guess I could call my roommate (even though she doesn't have a job and could then be called a freeloader)."

"I don't think I've actually ever seen a Temmie up close before!" Harlow says in fascination, petting the sleepy monster's fur, "She's so soft! Aww!"

"Huhhh..?" The Temmie garbles in its sleep. Temmies, while they were just like other monsters, were more like pets with how all of them were pretty much entirely dependent on other monsters. They weren't pets like cats and dogs could be, but when they were in a household they gave off that kind of presence, and never minded being treated as so. Strange monsters, they were indeed.

"Oh, weren't you working on something last we talked? Something about souls? How's that going?"

"That's going.., alright. I've stopped trying to figure anything out awhile ago, though. There's really no point anymore..." Gaster sighs, sitting on his couch.

"What do you mean? Of course there's still a point! You've been, like, one of the very few brave enough to tamper with souls like you are!" Harlow argues, "Everyone else either has no interest in it themselves, or are too scared!"

"What does it matter in the end if I spend the rest of my life doing this? You know as much as I do that the war is upon all of us worldwide. This is certainly World War Four, for sure, except it'll be an extinction game. I know I won't survive something like that; I'm not a fighter like you are, Harlow."

"Hey! Turn that frown upside down! If worst comes to worst and we gotta fight the stupid humans to get it into their heads that they're the same as us, then I'll personally come straight over here and make sure you're safe, okay?" Their parents had been older when the two were born, and had passed away a few years ago. In a way, the two siblings were almost thankful for it, as it meant their parents wouldn't have to deal with this impending war threat floating around in the air.

"Wouldn't you be more useful actually fighting, instead of trying to save me?"

"I mean.., I would probably have to. Hey, why don't we get you outta this stuffy house and go outside? How often do you even get out anymore?" Harlow suggests, changing the morbid topic.

"Eh.., not often enough... I mostly just stare at it when I have nothing else to do..." Gaster mumbles, standing up and walking over to the Temmie in the corner, waking her up.

"Then we should go wander around for a bit!" Harlow says as the Temmie wakes up.

"Outside???" Temmie says, looking beyond excited, "Yes! I love outside! We's go outsides together with Tem?"

"If you want to."

"Tem wanna go!!1!" She declares, climbing to her feet and running over to Harlow, walking circles around her like cats would sometimes do.

"Then let's go then!" Harlow says, grabbing Gaster's hand to drag him outside of the apartment so he couldn't go back on his decision of going with her outside.

"Uh.., I don't know if you already know this.., but I don't go out much because this is a mostly human city. They especially don't like the rest of us monsters here because there's so few." Gaster warns, locking the door behind him as he follows Harlow and Temmie down the stairs and out of the building, exchanging a quick wave with some monster they walked past in the hall.

"Aw, come on! It'll be fine!" Harlow insists.

"AAahH! Tem smell something gud!" Temmie says as they pass by a nearby bakery.

"Oh! I bet you've never even been in there before, have you G?" Harlow says, dragging the other reluctant skeleton behind her as Temmie ran ahead of them and into the bakery, pushing the door open with her head since she was kind of too short to actually push them open herself; the two skeletons following her inside.

A little bell rang above the door, and the person behind the counter looked up at them, "Hello!" She greets. It was an older woman, which despite her kind smile Gaster seemed afraid of. Most of the older humans didn't resent the rest of monsterkind, as they grew up during a rare time of peace between them; as did older monsters not resent mankind. For the most part.

"Hoi! Tem smells foods! Tem hungry!!1!" Temmie responds before the other two monsters, jumping up onto the counter so she could actually see the woman she was talking to now.

"Oh! Why look at you! I haven't seen a Temmie in years!" The woman seemed particularly happy to see Gaster's little friend now sitting on her counter.

"I've never seen one until just earlier, when I saw her living with my brother in his apartment!" Harlow says, leaning on the counter now as the two started talking about Temmies. Gaster, however, already hated this place, not liking how the other people in the store were staring at the three monsters. Ah, yes, this is why Gaster hates leaving his home. No need to remind him.

"Yo, Gaster, stop being a fraidy cat back there!" Harlow says, turning her head to glance at him for a moment.

"Is he afraid of me..?" The old woman asks, tilting her head slightly as she looked at the slightly shorter skeleton behind Harlow, who seemed even smaller as he was standing slightly slumped over.

"Not you particularly. He's afraid of humans, and has been as long as I can remember." Harlow replies, shrugging, "He was fretting about the threats of WW4 within moments of me showing up to see him."

"Ah, I see. Not all us humans want to hurt monsters like you!" She says to Gaster who glanced at her, glancing away almost in panic as he made eye contact.

"See? You don't have to be afraid of everyone all the time, G!"

"That's not the problem at all, Harlow. That's not the problem of if I'm afraid of them all or not. I'm leaving." Gaster mumbles in a slightly angry undertone before leaving the little bakery. Harlow watches him leave, slightly shocked at his sudden disappearance, but decides not to after him, assuming he'd come back soon.

However, he did not. Gaster looked ticked off as he stormed down the street, the humans walking by looking a bit afraid of the skeleton as he passed them. Why didn't his sister see the problem in all of this? Instead she just called him a coward for being afraid of something she should be afraid of, too. Did she  _want_  the war? Everyone was afraid of things, and if you weren't? You'd simply be chalked up as an idiot; fear makes you a living creature.

After calming down some, he simply kept walking, not caring where he went nor who stared at him for not being a human like they were. There were so few monsters here, that it was strange to see two monsters walking around in the same place who weren't there at the place together...

The skeleton stops, grumbling incoherently to himself as he looks around at where he is in the middle of downtown; completely packed with people, and some other monsters sprinkled here and about. On one of the buildings there was a huge billboard advertising some lame human movie, yet again about the destruction of their world. Of course the humans wanted war; they probably secretly hoped it would come down to near world destruction. It was as if as a single entity, human was another term for masochist.

He glared at the advertisement for a few moments. How could they keep on making movies and medias about this when the real thing was to happen within the next few months or years, if not; tomorrow even. Tensions were high, even if in daily life people tried to not to show it to each other. Ignoring it, Gaster kept wandering, and found himself in a much less populated area of the city, the number of monsters rising from, say, one or two every once in a while to at least one whichever direction you looked. It kept rising as he reached a residential area, seeing quite a few monsters walking around here who probably lived here outside of the city life of the city.

The strangest thing he saw, however, was a rather large monster who was outside, tending to a flower garden of some sort. "Oh! Hello there!" The other monster says as he turns around, surprised to see the skeleton.

"Huh? O-Oh! I'm sorry to bother you!" He hadn't realized he was staring at them, his head tilted a bit to get rid of the sun's glare in his face.

"No, no, you're not bothering at all!" The monster climbs to his feet, dusting his dirtied paws on his shirt as he approached him a bit more. He was a particularly fluffy goat monster, Gaster noted as he looked up at him, "Are you quite alright? You look.., disheveled? Is that the word?" Despite not knowing Gaster at all, besides the strange skeleton formerly staring at him while he tended his garden, he sounded genuinely concerned. God.., he looked like a real life plushy...

Gaster felt a strange feeling he couldn't quite place a name to at realizing that, "Er- ...Why?" he questions instead.

"Because when I see an upset monster in a place like this during a time like this, it could easily be something very, very wrong, you know?"

"...Some of us don't seem to think anything's all that wrong in the first place." Gaster mutters, mostly to himself.

"Oh? Is that you you're referring to?"

"No, my sister.  And I'm fine, just mad at her. Nothing I can't get over."

The monster seems to think about this for a moment, staring at Gaster as if being able to see something in or through him that Gaster couldn't, "Say, would you like some tea? It'd at least get you out of this heat; it's not very pleasant when you've been out in it for awhile." 

Gaster looked a bit worried at the proposal as he said, "A-Are you sure? You don't even know me, can't really say you've "met" me, either I suppose. I don't want to intrude on your-"

"No, no, no! It's perfectly fine! I can tell you wouldn't harm me, as I you!" The goat monster interrupts, insisting so.

"Ahh.., alright then, I suppose... I guess it would probably help to be out of the sun for a bit, too." Gaster decides, hesitantly following the friendly giant inside his home.


	2. Thouth Asgore at thine acquaintanence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll 100% never upload two chapters a day after the other again, as I've only got two other already completed chapters after this (3 and 4), and I'm halfway through 5 and there's wayyy more than just 5, so uhh ye  
> I decided to upload this one earlier than I otherwise would have so that Asgore can actually interact with him before I take like a week or a little less than that to upload the next one. Hopefully by then I'll have at least two more chapters done, so I don't gotta worry about not having anything to upload hhhh

"So, tell me a little about yourself. ...Or would you rather I go first?" The goat monster says, handing Gaster a cup of freshly made tea.

"...Well, for starters, my name's W.D. Gaster, and I'm obviously a skeleton. I, er- I'm no fighter, and much prefer science and reasoning over the massacre this world is concluding to." Gaster says slowly, as if he didn't quite know the answer to the question.

"Ah, well it's good to know not everyone's turned hateful or blood thirsty. I would much prefer messing around with botany and the like than fighting, but I know other monsters are depending on me to protect them when the time comes soon." The other monster says, taking a sip of tea afterwards.

"My sister's the same way, I suppose. She's all fight."

"Some people are just like that, you know? I'm Asgore by the way." The goat adds.

"W-Wait, you're  _Asgore_!?" Gaster sputters, surprised. He'd never once heard about, let alone seen, what Asgore looks like, but he, like any monster (and even human) knew who Asgore generally was. Asgore was the strongest monster who had been trying to negotiate the humans's leaders to not start another war over this matter of "humans aren't monsters, and we'll prove it by massacring our brethren who are anything but human".

Asgore laughs a little, it sounding like the epitome of "kind", "Why yes, I am! Nice to make your acquaintance!"

Gaster seemed a hell of a lot more nervous now. Since when did Asgore live  _here_? In  _this_  city? "I-It's nice to meet you, t-too!" Gaster stutters, "Er, sorry, I just didn't expect the person who matched with what I know about Asgore- er, you, to be.., you know..."

"A big, fluffy, huggable goat monster? Yeah, I've gotten that a lot!" Asgore says, smiling at the smaller skeleton.

"Y-Yeah.., that." Gaster mumbles, clearing his throat.

"And you're a skeleton, as you clearly are and have said. I've not met many skeletons; but they're always quite fascinating!" Asgore says, changing topic a bit, "Isn't every skeleton particularly masterful of some type of magic?"

"...Typically, yes, but I don't really mess much with my magic since I never need it. I'm not actually too sure, but I can mess with the gravity of things.., er, like this I guess." Gaster replies, levitating a potted flower on the table up about a foot with the raise of a single finger.

"Oh! Wow! That sounds like such a useful magic type! Think of how much easier things could be if you could just move things towards you!- Well, I mean,  _you_  can, but you don't."

"Yeah.., I'm not sure if it's normal or not, since the only other skeletons I actually know is my sister, and my parents before they passed away a few years back, but I suppose I've got more than one type of magic?"

"Really? What's another one?" Asgore asks, intrigued. He'd only met one or two monsters with two magic types, let alone more than that like Gaster was claiming.

"I have no clue what it's name would be, but I can also set trap-like attacks that attack someone based on their movement patterns... I could show you, but it's pretty ineffective if it's not damaging someone to actually see it."

"No, no, go ahead! If you don't  use your magic much, I doubt it'd do too much damage unless you were trying to!" Asgore insists.

"...If you say so." Gaster summons a couple of bones, a pair of floating, ghost-like hands suddenly appearing out of thin air to hold them, seemingly surprising Asgore more than Gaster would think since he thinks nothing of the spectral hands.

"Are those.., hands?"

"Oh! Yeah, that's a thing, too. I don't know what to call that either..." Gaster mumbles as the hands slowly float up to Asgore. One bone was light blue in color, while the other was orange, "Anyways.., uh, the blue one doesn't hurt a soul if they don't move when it passes through them, and the orange one is the opposite." He briefly explains.

Asgore almost looks skeptical as he waves his hand through the orange one. Nothing happened until he stopped moving his hand, and the bone disappeared with its measly attack power ineffective to Asgore, "Wow! That's actually really neat! You sure you don't fight? These kind of things would make you practically invincible."

The ghost hands disappear, the blue colored bone along with it as Gaster sputters slightly from the compliment, "Ah! No, no! I want nothing to do with fighting if I can help it!!"

Asgore smiles at him, "That's good to hear. But, if the humans truly declare war, every last one of us will have to fight; you know that right? There's so many more of them than there are of us now. It's to the point where most of them don't even have to fight us directly if they don't want to."

"...I know. When that happens, I've already decided that I'm going to protect my "roommate" and anyone I can without directly having to face anyone..."

"Roommate?"

"Er, I don't know if she's really a roommate. She's a Temmie who lives in my apartment with me, though." Gaster explains.

"Ah, yes! Sad that those harmless creatures are becoming extinct nowadays." Asgore says, sighing.

There was a short silence before Gaster brought back the topic of magic with, "What's your magic type? If you have one."

"I can summon fire, is all!" Asgore snaps his fingers and a small flame flickers slightly above his finger. He shakes his hand and the fire's gone as soon as it showed up, "Nothing special. At least, not compared to your strange magics. Who were your parents? Did they have magic like that, too? Or does your sister, as well?"

"Hmm.., my father had time magic of some lesser degree, my mother had fire as well, and my sister doesn't have any, unless the sickening determination to fight the humans counts. I'm not sure why I have this much magic in the first place either. It's pretty wasted if you ask me, since I have no wishes to fight anyone like half my magic is solely useful for..."

"Surely you've gotten it for some reason!" Asgore reasons, "Either way, that is quite strange.., but I guess there's got to be someone out there with absurd strengths; it just happens to be you, and I just happened to meet you!"

"Yeah, I guess so..- Oh jeez, I should probably go find my sister and that Temmie. I kind of, uh, stormed off from them awhile ago, and it's been a couple hours now..." Gaster says as he realizes how long he's spent with the friendly goat monster.

"Ah, that's a shame! You're quite entertaining to talk to!" Asgore says happily as he takes the empty cup from Gaster, "Do come back some time soon! We could figure out what's up with your magic types; I know some rather smart monsters who in working together could find it out!"

"Oh, I doubt they'd waste their time on something as dumb as my magic..."

"It's intriguing! Trust me!" Asgore insists as he and Gaster walk to the house's door, Asgore standing in the doorway as the skeleton went back the way he came, "Goodbye, Gaster!"

"...Bye, Asgore." He looks back at the smiling goat monster for a brief moment; dammit, why's this big, fluffy (adorable) goat have to be  _Asgore_? ...At least nothing bad happened on his strange venture into the city he barely knew despite living there.

He wandered back to his apartment, figuring Temmie and Harlow would be there after so long. Gaster found that the door was unlocked, so at the very least Temmie was there again right now. He opened the door and saw Harlow and Temmie on the couch, both looking over at him as the door opened.

"GASTER! Don't run off like that again!!" Harlow says as she jumps to her feet and nearly tackles her brother to the floor in a worried hug, "Something could have happened to you, and we would never know!" She stepped away from him to let him regain his balance.

"Yea!! Tem was worrieds!1!!" Temmie adds, peering at them from over the arm of the couch.

"Well, I guess you could say something  _did_  happen. I met Asgore, believe it or not."

"WHAT!? YOU MET  _ASGORE_  WITHOUT ME!?"

"I-I just kinda ran into him, is all! I didn't e-even know it was him at first!!" Gaster says, chuckling a bit wearily, "He's a huge goat monster!"

"Really? Now he just sounds like some cute, little pet!" Harlow says, "You're ruining my image of what he looks like! He's supposed to be some radical dragon guy! Or something! ...Maybe King Kong or Godzilla!"

"He's.., He's  _really_  cute, honestly, and unbelievably fluffy-" Gaster says blushing a bit purple as he admits this, "He was out in his garden tending his flowers and saw that I looked upset, so he invited me in for tea.., and we talked about magic, mostly..."

"That's so cool! I wish I met him, too! You gotta introduce me to him, now that you know where he lives!"

"That..- That sounds almost creepy, but alright..."


	3. And he's SOUL-d (h a)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uhh so school happened and it was bad. Still only got five chapters written at time of uploading this one, but I'm trying to forcefully make time to keep writing this because I really wanna write it... so uh yeah. So I'm uploading a third, and I'll upload the other two in like a week or something, and hopefully I'll have more than five total chapters written by then..!

Some days later, Gaster decided to visit Asgore again. Harlow had already left back home late on their shared birthday, so it was just him and the Temmie again (though she was staying home). He thought about what the goat monster had been saying.., was his magic really  _that_  interesting? Interesting enough that he, too, wanted to know what exactly it was, or where it came from, or just, why?

His walk there was uneventful, though a few people seemed to stare holes into his back as he passed them, making him feel slightly threatened the longer he went on, but nothing happened, luckily. Now he could see Asgore's quaint, little house down the street, the flowers almost appearing to be made of gold in the sunlight being shone on them.

Stepping up to the door, Gaster rings the doorbell, and waits a few seconds, the door opening a few moments later to a slightly confused Asgore. His face lit up however when he saw the strange skeleton he had met a few days prior, "Oh! Gaster! You  _did_  come back! That makes me so happy; no one really ever comes to visit me, you know? Come in, come in!" Asgore says, smiling a soft smile the whole time. ...There was that feeling again that Gaster couldn't name, his heart seemingly clenching as he mad brief eye contact with the happy goat.

"My sister kept me busy the last few days, but she left last night..." Gaster says, "I realized it's kind of lonely without her, since the Temmie talks pretty incoherently, even though I believe she's pretty smart for a Temmie."

"Ah, so is the way of the Temmie. And if you're ever feeling lonely again, my doors will always be open to you! I know we don't quite know each other too well, but I feel we'll get along marvelously!" Asgore says, placing his paw on Gaster's shoulder to nudge him towards his couch, the two sitting down on it.

"So," Asgore starts, messing with some random objects on his coffee table for a moment before sitting back into the couch and facing Gaster slightly, "Is there a more specific reason you've shown up? Or no? Either is perfectly fine!"

"...I'll have to admit the thought of actually understanding my magic sounds.., quite intriguing." Gaster mumbles slightly.

"Ah! It is always nice to know things like that about yourself! Hmm.., I don't think the person I had in mind in helping with that is free at all today..." Asgore taps his chin in thought for a moment before leaning over to snatch a piece of loose paper out of some binder on the coffee table, grabbing the pen that sat beside the binder, "If you give me some way to contact you; phone or email, then we can much more easily figure this out so you don't have to show up every day! ...Unless you'd rather show up every day, that is..!"

Gaster takes the two things as Asgore hands them to him, he scribbling down his email address. He seemed almost lost for a moment, as he was used to writing things that only he particularly saw, which he'd write in chicken scratch wingdings, but obviously Asgore wouldn't understand what Gaster barely could half the time, so he had to scribe it differently. Asgore reclaims the paper and pen afterwards, "Alright, thank you! ...Er, heh, now what?"

They end up talking more about themselves, Asgore starting with, "I never really had friends when I was younger. I was some small goat kid who couldn't even use magic at the time, as my fire magic manifested in my late teens. I'm not sure how old you are, but I'm sure you know of this too; there weren't too many nice people around back then, and despite how I tried to be kind to everyone, their petty reason to make fun of me was because I was a "farm goat" and, "the humans will come to take you back"."

"...Why would anyone be mean to you? People really said that? You're the nicest person I've ever met, and we haven't even known each other for an entire day!" Gaster protests, surprised at what Asgore had said.

"Eh.., I don't really think about it much anymore. Hmm.., if you couldn't already tell, I really like gardening. Especially flowers!"

"You do it nicely."

"Thank you! What about you?" Asgore's head tilts to the side slightly as he now looked at the skeleton, awaiting an answer.

"I spend most of my time.., experimenting..." Gaster mumbles as response.

"Oh? What are you experimenting about? Or is the term 'for', not 'about'? I'm not too sure..."

"Ah, well, u-uhh.., I'm sure you'd think I've gone wrong in the head if I told you, heh.., since I'm more than certain you wouldn't understand everything I've done before my current experiments that make it less crazy sounding..."

"No, no, you can tell me. Or not; you can tell me whatever you'd wish, and I'll hold no judgments about it!" Asgore insists, smiling that gentle smile again that makes Gaster almost feel dizzy.

He looked away from the goat and instead payed attention to his hands in his lap as he decides to tell him, "Well.., what I'm currently working on is with souls. Kind of a way to prove to the humans that they aren't different from us just because their souls are colored, and the rest are purely white- well, mostly."

"Wait- Say that again? Mostly?" Asgore looks confused, "Humans aren't the only monsters with colored souls?"

"Oh, well, no! How I know? Mine isn't white. I don't know about other monsters, but I know I'm certainly not a human, so they're not entirely unique souls just to them. They have no reason to feel superior about that, if you ask me." Gaster says.

"Really? What color's your soul, then? Does your sister have a different colored soul? Maybe it's a skeleton thing?"

"My soul's purple, and hers is white, too. I've seen it plenty of times when she gets in stupid fights with other people about stupid things." Gaster says.

"Wow! I think that color suits you pretty well, Gaster." Asgore says, still smiling as he goes on about it, "Purple is a very calming color, and in history has meant things like 'rich' and 'royal', and you're doing some kind of unique science-y work, right?"

"A-Ah.., well.., I know you seem to think I must be some cool guy because of all this, but I'm not really. I'm nothing like normal monsters, and I'm a pretty boring person, since no one understands to the depth I do about what I like to talk about... (I mean, I tell Temmie sometimes, but she's a Temmie and doesn't understand most of what I say anyways.)"

"You're a 'normal' monster, too, my friend! No one can be normal when everyone has something special about them!" Asgore reassures, scooting closer to Gaster so he could place his paw on his shoulder for comfort, "You just happen to be that one a million person with, well, a  _lot_  of unique oddities, but it's nothing to be ashamed or sad about!"

"If you say so..." Gaster shrugs.

"Hey, why don't you tell me more about what you're working on, or whatever others don't understand about that you like talking about? I probably won't understand either, but I can learn by listening to you, right?" Asgore suggests, trying to cheer up the skeleton.

"O-Oh, um, a-alright..!" Gaster replies, clearing his throat as he thinks of some place to start talking, "Uh, so, what are the differences you know between human and the rest of the monsters's souls?"

"Well, for starters, theirs have color, ours don't (except yours, of course!), and our souls are upside down while theirs are rightside up." Asgore lists, "Oh! And humans manifest some kind of trait within their souls, like courage, or determination, or dexterity, etc."

"From looking closer into different souls, with the people's permissions of course, I've found more differences that aren't commonly known, and a lot more similarities further disproving that they're "special"." Gaster says.

"One of the things I found is what the souls look like themselves; like, up close. Souls are comparable to a woven basket; for humans, they're small threads of white laced into much bigger strands of their soul's color, meaning theirs has white as well!"

"But a similarity I found one hundred and one percent proves they are the same, and just have stronger souls as a people entirely. The rest of us monsters have traits within our souls, as well! Like, your soul is the opposite of a human's; it's white and upside down, yes?"

"Of course."

"So, get this, yours would be small threads of some color, with bigger strands of white. The white weighs down the soul (I haven't found out why yet), and makes the entire thing's center of gravity flip upside down. Monster's traits are weaker, but still there. Knowing you, I'd say yours is probably.., kindness, or maybe courage?"

Asgore seemed genuinely surprised to hear all this, "So..- So you're telling me there's not a single difference between monster souls and human souls?"

"Yes. I could even show you yourself in person those differences between our own souls, since mine takes as a human's, and yours a monster. ...We'd need a microscope with very fine, small magnifications to see precisely what I was talking about, which I have at home, though obviously." Gaster says, feeling like he has to prove this in its entirety to the goat monster.

"While it's hard to believe, since I grew up only knowing what you called the basics (and what I thought was "the whole thing"), I'd believe it if I saw your soul looked like a humans, honestly..." Asgore says, " _But I more than understand if you want nothing to do with that kind of thing!!_ " Asgore adds in quickly.

Seeing another monster (or human's) soul wasn't exactly common, nor everyday. It only happened in fights to show the culmination of their being; who they are, and other than that it's only really ever seen in particularly.., intimate.., moments. Or when some skeleton is studying souls and you agree to help him with his studies by offering your soul as one he can actually look at.

Despite it was Gaster's idea originally, he still felt his face heat up slightly as Asgore says this, feeling a bit flustered for reasons unknown to him. "Oh, are you alright? Did I say something wrong?" Asgore asks upon seeing Gaster's reaction in full.

"N-No, no- well I mean yes; I'm alright, but it's fine! I don't know why I react to some things the way I do..." He mostly mumbles the last part as his eyes briefly glow purple as he summons his soul, it floating a bit away from the center of his chest at the moment.

Asgore gasps slightly upon seeing the soul. It was indeed purple, but also.., quite strange.., "G-Gaster? Are you alright? Were you hurt, or something? Oh my, why is it.., broken? Is it broken?" the goat frets, his paws reaching towards it slightly, but not actually interacting with it, afraid his dread over it would overstep some boundaries or personal space.

"I don't know what that's about, either.., and I'm perfectly fine, don't worry about that. It's just like that, I guess." Gaster says nervously. His soul had two gaping holes on either side of it, yet he was completely uninjured and in perfect health; that's just how his soul naturally was.

Asgore looked a bit relieved to hear that, though he still had his doubts, "My, you sure are a strange skeleton." He comments, retracting his paws away from Gaster's soul. "I never thought souls could, well.., be like  _that.._. Mine's just a plain, regular, white soul like I've always heard of for non-human monsters to have."

As if for contrast, Asgore's soul appears above his open paw, as if he were holding it despite that it floated. It was strange looking at the two souls beside each other. One normal, and one anything but that. The only abnormality one could suppose to say about Asgore's soul was that it was considerably larger, at least compared to Gaster's, but that only made sense considering he, himself, was a huge monster (and what he would later do and become in the future, too, of course; for the soul can in a way show someone's future if it's a bit different from the norm).

"...Now that just looks silly." Gaster comments, half an amused smile on his face as he looked between the two souls. Asgore laughs, his smile bright as ever as he places his hand on Gaster's shoulder to steady himself.


	4. Talking about Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A grand ole time spieling about magic. ...I guess.

"Ah! Hello again, my dearest friend!" Gaster didn't quite know when Asgore had moved from calling him "my friend" to "my  _dearest_  friend", but it got him just a bit flustered, as it was the first thing Asgore said to him as he once again showed up at Asgore's quaint, little house, "This is Toriel and Dr. Syphlah!"

It had been a bit, and now Asgore had gotten some people who were more magically involved than he was so they could try and figure out Gaster's magic. Upon Asgore telling the two monster women, they were immediately intrigued, as he had been before, "Oh, er, h-hello!" Gaster greets a bit nervously as Asgore closes the door behind him after he had entered the now familiar abode.

"Hello!" Toriel greets first. She was very similar to Asgore, just shorter and obviously more feminine than he.

"Wow! It's been absolutely forever since I've seen a skeleton! Very nice to make your acquaintance, Mr... Mr. Gaster?" Syphlah then greets, unsure of what to call him. She was a lizard-like monster, looking a bit like a dinosaur, as she had plated spikes coming off her head, and a little horn on her nose like a rhinoceros or triceratops would.

"Just Gaster is fine." Gaster says as he glances at Asgore who seemed particularly happy upon seeing the three already getting along.

"Oh! I absolutely must thank you for keeping Azzy company every once in a while!" Toriel starts saying, Asgore looking a bit embarrassed at the nick name he knew for a fact his newest friend had never heard, and he was certain Dr. Syphlah hadn't either... "I can't come around as often as I'd like, she's got work to do, and his heart's too big to be left alone for too long!"

"A-Azzy..? Is Azzy your nick name, Asgore?" Gaster questions, smiling slightly as he looked over to the red faced monster.

"N-Now now! Let's just go and t-talk about why we're all actually here right now!" Asgore insists, waving his paws dismissively as he moves into the living room. Syphlah follows him, and the sound of furniture being moved across the carpet is heard as Toriel stops Gaster for a moment.

"All silliness aside, genuinely thank you! While he's kind, he's a bit introverted and doesn't act to keep newly made friends, so I'm glad you didn't give up on him for that!" Toriel says, smiling a very genuine, but familiar smile that Asgore had often smiled. The same smile Asgore had when he was laughing after Gaster's comment about their souls the other day. It was nice to know there were more people like Asgore...

"I guess I'm a lot like him. I don't really have friends, except a Temmie I suppose. And I mean, he invited me in and I had no idea  _he_ was  _Asgore_  until afterwards, so I felt a bit obligated to know him at least a little more for that... I guess..." Gaster mumbles in reply.

Toriel smiled even brighter, if possible, as she gently nudges the skeleton towards where the other two had gone, "Well I'm glad to hear that! Anyways, we should probably follow them!"

The coffee table and all its contents atop it had been harmlessly scooted out of the way to a corner of the room, and the couch seemed slightly pushed back, as indents in the carpet from where the couch formerly stood were clearly evident.

"I decided beforehand that the best way to even start coming up with ideas about this is to actually see your magic to any and every extent you know about it, ourselves!" Syphlah says as she plops herself onto the couch, adjusting her glasses slightly closer to her face.

Toriel and Asgore joined her as Syphlah continued, "So, uh, Asgore, you mentioned something about some colored bones? ...And his soul, but that's not what this is about, I suppose."

"Ah, yes! The, er- The bone thing! Oh gosh, what did you call it again? It's slipped my mind, I'm afraid..." Asgore says.

"I don't think I called it anything, actually... I simply don't know  _what_ to call it, is all." Gaster replies, standing in front of the couch where the three sat, seemingly eager to see what exactly this strange skeleton could actually do.

"I recall it doesn't work unless someone actually is "attacked" by it, yes?" Asgore says, standing up and approaching Gaster, "We can do the same thing we did the first time, right?"

"I... suppose so. Yes." Gaster still seemed a bit nervous about hurting the goat monster, but complied anyhow. Two different colored bones appeared from the floor, one orange and one light blue just as before, "The orange one damages upon the soul or target's lack of movement, while that light blue one damages upon any movement through it." Gaster explains.

"I've heard of a handful of monsters with this ability. It's a truly fascinating concept!" Syphlah comments as Asgore swipes his paw through the orange one a few times, his hand going straight through it every time.

"Oh, that's incredible!" Toriel says, watching as the seemingly solid bone let Asgore's hand pass through it like water, or as if it weren't really there (but it was). Asgore put his paw back through the bone and held it there, as he had done days before, and the bone disappeared with its measly damage output.

"And this one's the opposite, you said?" Asgore asks as he places his hand within the blue bone, holding it there to find nothing happens.

"Yes." Asgore moves his hand, and the second bones disappears as quickly as the other, though it seemed to do slightly less damage than the other; not that that particularly mattered to a monster with the ridiculous amount of hp he had.

The lizard monster seemed to be writing something down on the notebook Gaster hadn't even noticed until now. Asgore sat back down, and eventually Dr. Syphlah spoke again, removing her eyes from her paper, "I can't quite recall the name of that, but I'm certain it has one! I think Mr. Dreemurr also mentioned something about gravity?"

"Ah, yes. I generally say that gravity is my ability since I learned it far before the rest of what I can do nowadays, despite never really using any of it." Gaster confirms as he scans the room for something to lift. He settles on that same file binder that was still on the table, his left eye glowing blue as it lifted into the air and came to a stop in front of them all on the bare carpet floor, "It's not as impressive when it's something like this, though..."

"Gravity magic is the most universal type of magic." Syphlah rambles, "It can be used for attacking, defending, holding points, and asides from battle can be used in any imaginable situation in every day life. It's a rarer magic, thankfully (because then that's just dangerous), but it's not entirely unheard of. It seems skeletons tend to have this kind of magic more often, from what I've observed, so you certainly check out. If the rest of your magic is here in some unnatural way, then gravity is definitely your true magic type."

"Oh, Gaster! Remember those hand things?" Asgore pipes up after a moment of silence from the lizard monster.

"Hand things?" Toriel questions, looking over to Gaster inquisitively. All around Gaster, various ghost-like hands yet again appeared. There were eight in total, four being right hands, four being left hands. It was a very strange sight as the hands freely floated in a counter clockwise manner with minds of their own.

"... _What?_ " Is all Syphlah says after a moment, "I've never- I'm sorry I'm coming off as strange, I've just never heard of anything like that before!"

"Are they real? Or apparition?" Toriel asks. In response, one of the hands leaves the slowly spinning circle and floats itself over in front of the couch. Toriel reached towards it and could place her paw on the transparent hand as if it were any other object. "Wow..." She breathes out in wonder, the hand seamlessly returning to its place among the spinning circle slightly behind Gaster.

"What else can you do? If anything?" Syphlah asks curiously.

"Well, I can do some kind of healing magic, which I suppose doesn't really need to be shown, but..." a small, green, slightly transparent orb (comparable to Flowey's friendliness pellets in shape/size) appeared and shot itself at Asgore, it healing the very small fraction of damage taken from the previous events.

"I can also, er, do  _this_. Whatever this is." Gaster mumbles a bit as he summons what appears to be a dragon-like skull. It was small and he held it between his hands, it sharing white eye lights like he had, "I can make them much bigger, but I feel this is not the space for blasters..."

"Blasters?" Asgore asks, "I'll assume this is an attack magic, as well?"

"Primarily, yes. These things shoot, well...  _blasts_ , I suppose. They are probably a bit  _too_  powerful and harder to control the larger they are... small ones like this however don't act on their own like the bigger ones tend to. They can also lift things, giving them a non-attack use, I suppose."

"What exactly is that? Do you know?" Toriel asks, looking at the little, slightly floating skull.

"I have no idea, and after hearing an explanation of it I'm not too sure I wanna go near it, even though it won't attack me, heh..." Syphlah says, scribbling words down onto her clipboard papers again.

"Er- Well, that's all I can do." Gaster concludes, kicking his feet a bit awkwardly into the carpet as the blaster makes a strange chirping sound as it jumped from his hands and disappeared in mid air further above them all, the other three staring in awe of where the strange dragon skull had previously been.

"You said you don't use your magic often, right?" Syphlah questions, "That means who knows how much more you may really be able to do!"

"Especially with the dark times ahead... I think it is a good idea to explore that so you can at least protect those around you. No average human would be able to get past your magic, whether you aim to kill them or ward them off." Toriel says.

"...If you want to! You don't have to do anything with your magic if you don't want to!" Asgore adds, trying to soothe Gaster's slightly nervous look after what the other two had said.

"I- ...I don't know. I feel like having this much magic in the first place would make all of it weaker than it could have been if I only had one magic type like I'm  _supposed_ to." Gaster says, looking anywhere but at Asgore's comforting smile, not sure if he quite liked the crushing-like feeling it tended to give him. At least, not during a time like this, anyways.

Toriel jumps to her feet, all smiles as she says, "We'd never know unless we tried! But Asgore's right with what he said, too! We can't exactly force you to use your magic, anyways, I'd suppose..."

"The next step is to either figure out your magic's boundaries, if you want to go down that path, or try and find monsters who have magic abilities similar to any of yours (except gravity, of course)." Syphlah says, standing up as well. Gaster was slightly impressed how she could walk around with huge claws on each of her three toes without ripping anything, like the carpet for a prime example, to pieces. They didn't even make clicking sounds on harder surfaces, as they were kept just short enough to avoid that.


End file.
